Wall
by axxe
Summary: No matter how they try to evade it, they will keep on running into walls. Ten-shot. Some Fax.
1. Chapter 1

**.:chapter one:.**

Max hit her head on the wall.

"Alternatively," Gazzy continued hastily, "we could use it on diversion methods. Same thing."

In her mind, Max repeated her latest action over again. And again. And again.

He and Iggy stood in front of her meeky, their hands by their sides, looking down as if they knew already what the answer to their appeal would be. The way they positioned themselves was so innocent that it seemed hard to believe that they were appealing for something as dangerous as they were.

"Please, Max. We've been looking forward to it for ages. We have everything we need. All we need to do is set it up and it's only very little. Tiny, like a mouse." Iggy held his thumb and index finger about ten centimetres apart to indicate the size.

Pressing her hand to her face, Max sighed. "Look guys, I know you've put time into this, but I simply can't allow it. You know the lecture. I've said it more than ten times."

"But-"

"BUT-"

"But no. I'm not dumb – I know what you mean when you say little. And nobody, not even you two, is allowed to set off a bomb big enough to explode the Statue of Liberty under my watch."

**New multi-chapter story. Somewhat inspired by other one-shots I've read, but mostly The First Ten by Tokoloshe Monster (you know that she's completely taken over my fanfiction life? Two of my stories are inspired by her, and one of them is written **_**for**_** her). This one I'm going to actually complete and update every day, because the chapters are short and I've written them all. And I promise to cut down on author's notes, because I know that they're too long.**

**There will be: some Fax. Some one-sided Miggy. Humour, romance and angst. NOT AH or AU.**

**Oh, and disclaimer for this chapter and the rest of the story: I don't own Maximum Ride.**


	2. Chapter 2

**.:chapter two:.**

Nudge banged against the glass wall with all her might.

"Please!" she cried, trying in vain to break it, to shake it, to even get a response from the other side. "_Max!"_

But the girl on the inside of the chamber, the crystal prison, was unresponsive. She remained passive and lifeless as she lay in the centre of a white room hooked up to a dozen different machines.

Desperately, Nudge carried on down the hallway, bursting into angry tears as she saw the rest of her family in much the same condition as her oldest sister. At last she came to Angel's chamber. She was lying on a steel table, yet unlike the others, her eyes were open. Their pale depths were vacant, like windows into a barren plain. There was nobody inside.

She remembered that she had been the first to go.

"No," she breathed, stumbling back catching herself on the wall. "No. No, no, no, NO!"

Screaming hysterically, she raced down the hall to where she had come from, only to be met by four Erasers who grabbed her roughly.

"You're next, pumpkin."

Though she struggled with all her might, she knew in her heart that she had already given up.

**If you haven't picked it up already, the link between the stories is the use of the word 'wall'. I just had to make sure.**


	3. Chapter 3

**.:chapter three:.**

Fang was creative.

When one first looked at him, it didn't shine through. He always wore black, and his expression always had some similarity to a blank page. Though he sketched sometimes, he certainly wasn't an inspired artist, and he didn't write stories, he wrote from real life. He wasn't an inventive speaker either. In fact, he hardly ever said anything.

But, nevertheless, he was creative.

It wasn't on the surface, of course. It was deep beneath. It was subtle; it showed through when he made meticulous plans with the flock to infiltrate the school, or when he made an especially spectacular attack in a fight.

Mostly though, it showed in his endeavours to win Max's love.

Fang knew he cared for Max. He'd known it ever since the time when they had rescued Angel, when she had not come back and he couldn't help but worry about what had happened to her. She had always remained the same way toward him and he knew that he would have to make an effort.

Because her heart was surrounded by a wall with no doors.

And he had to think outside the box to find himself a place inside.


	4. Chapter 4

**.:chapter four:.**

Yet again, Angel came up against a wall.

"It's no use," she whispered, hiding behind the bush with Gazzy. "No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to read their minds."

Anxiously Nudge frowned. "Are you sure? Maybe they're not even there. We can try around the other side…"

Saddened, Angel shook her head. "It's not that. They're there."

"If we don't get any information, we won't be able to break in," her brother added in, shuffling in his crouched position. "Fang and Max are already working on other details. We all need to know what's going on before we launch an attack. Iggy will have to come and see what he can hear if you can't hear anything, though that's not as good. How do you know there are people there?"

Angel rested her head on her knees and mumbled through the curtain of pale curly hair that fell over her face. "It's like…for example, a normal person's mind is like a glass ball. It is perfectly transparent and you can see inside. But the whitecoats in there, it's like their minds are glass balls as well, except it's opaque so you can't see anything."

"Then-"

"Wait!" she hissed, putting one finger up. "I'm getting a signal. Hold on a sec."

They waited excitedly as a smile spread over Angel's face.

"I'm in."


	5. Chapter 5

**.:chapter five:.**

All of the flock built emotional walls.

They were of all types and they came out in different ways. Angel kept her mourning of her lost childhood at bay in her attachment to her stuffed toys. The Gasman locked away his fears of being taken back to the school in preparing his explosive defence. Nudge drowned her social insecurities with her constant babbling. Fang suppressed his hate of Jeb in his dark appearance. Max masked her uncertainty and stress in her act of cocky confidence.

And Iggy…Iggy closed off his feelings for Max like closing a door inside of himself.

He knew that it was a mess. There were so many things that could go wrong with that feeling. It was insignificant in the whole scheme of things. Yet it still hurt when he saw her smile at Fang, saw them talking to each other like there was nobody else in the world.

He built the emotional wall for the sake of not only himself, but for everybody else.

It was a burning pot – he had to leave it alone until it cooled down, then he could do whatever he wanted with it.

Because, if he didn't lie to himself, he knew that it was just a crush.


	6. Chapter 6

**.:chapter six:.**

When Gazzy and Iggy walked into the room, they were hit by a wall of noise.

"Oh, my goodness, you're okay! We were so worried you know – Max was just about to throw a fit and curse Iggy into the fiery pits of hell for convincing her to let you two get whatever you were getting. I'm not even sure I want to know, really, because it's going to turn into some bomb of sorts and that's all that's significant. Back to what I was saying before, Max is really irritable, so if you want to live, you better report to her quickly and then get out as fast as you can. It's-"

A sigh came from the other side of the room. "Nudge?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up. I have a headache."

Nudge's mouth popped open into the shape of an 'o' before she was off again, at a hundred kilometres per hour. "You know, Angel, you can be more considerate. I'm just preparing our resident pyromaniacs for the horror ahead of them. You know what? I'm going to go on the laptop."

As she stomped off, the three relaxed. Then what she actually said sunk in.

"Oh crap…"


	7. Chapter 7

**.:chapter seven:.**

Quietly, quickly, Max climbed over the wall. It was a smart move to cover the outside area in clear corrugated plastic, but it had slipped their minds that she could actually_ climb_ over the ten foot wall if she couldn't fly over it.

Well, they obviously knew nothing about avian experiments. That was always a good sign.

As she squeezed herself through the small cap between the barrier and the cover, she thanked her lucky stars that the school hadn't infiltrated that particular part of the police force.

Casually she strolled over to the nearest street, which was full of shops, talking people and cars. But most importantly, public telephones. It was such a joke. For lunch they had simply given her some coins to buy food from the vending machines. Of course, she could have just stolen a mobile phone, but it humoured her to use the money they had provided to pull her get-out-of-jail-free card.

With deft efficiency Max slid the coins into their slots and dialled a number. A deep husky voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Come and pick me up, Fnick," she replied in an equally cool tone. "I'm at the corner of People's Avenue and Bantry Lane."

"Yes ma'am."


	8. Chapter 8

**.:chapter eight:.**

"This is driving me up the wall! I just can't. It's not possible. Nobody can move that fast. _Nothing_ can move that fast."

"Max probably can."

Nudge narrowed her eyes at Fang, where he smirked a few metres away. Any other person would have shied away from the mere look. "Oh, ha ha, Fang. You're so funny. I really hope you caught the sarcasm there. You know what? I'm hacking this. I've had enough. I will not be beaten by a simple machine."

Max appeared on the scene, holding a sharpened machete lightly in her hand. "Did somebody say my name?" she asked, brandishing the long knife with ease.

Leaping up, Fang moved closer. "Why yes, yes somebody did."

Nudge had already zoned out of the conversation and she was already, yet again, bashing away. Max glanced over curiously when she, yet again, screamed with anger and frustration. The older girl gave an amused smile and came to stand at her back.

"You can calm down, Nudge," she said while affectionately ruffling her hair.

"It's only tetris."


	9. Chapter 9

**.:chapter nine:.**

"Don't you _get_ it? There's no hope! It's the writing on the wall, Fang."

Max stalked the room, throwing random clothes into a backpack. The flock obediently packed their own belongings into their bags, remaining invisible as possible under her radiant rage. Furiously she tipped her bag upside down and picked out the essential items to put back in.

"You don't know for sure."

Coldly, she glared at him. "Oh, I know. Look at us. The only people who want us are the experimental scientists, or people who want something _from_ us. If not that, those people will end up interfering with our happiness. Look at the examples – Jeb, Anne, the Griffiths, my _mom_. I've lost all faith."

She swung the bag onto her back almost violently. "We're freaks, Fang. To the world, we're not people, we're things. And don't you ever forget it."

His face hardened. Later she would wonder if she had struck a chord, pushed too far. At that moment she was too full of fury, despair and betrayal to care.

With a determined flick of her hair she marched out to the high-rise apartment balcony to be followed promptly by the rest of the Flock.

"U and A, guys. Let's leave this hellhole."


	10. Chapter 10

**.:chapter ten:.**

They fought, striking their way through the mass of their opponents to the disappearing sliver of freedom. They were outnumbered – outnumbered was what Erasers did best – but this time, oh, this time, the chance that they would make it was dying out.

One by one they were forced up against the wall of the warehouse, standing close by each other in the crowded room. With a roof over their heads they were trapped, and everybody knew it, some with dread and some with sweet pleasure.

Tears, the never seen, streamed out of Max's eyes and mixed with the dirt on her face. They continued to fight, even though hope was all but lost.

Eventually the Erasers withdrew a little. Just enough so that it was evident that they were launching a final attack. With sickening finality the leader put her hands down and reached for Fang's and Angel's. It was a signal and they knew it was well and truly over.

Each of them linked hands so that they formed a line. Tired lids shut over old eyes – black, brown, blue, blind, seeing – closing off the bright light forming in front of them. It was the colour of their demise.

As one the Flock drew its last breath.

**Alas, I come to the end of my first completed multi-chapter fan fiction. I want to say thank you to Tokoloshe Monster for reviewing, and to you, yes you, even though you probably won't review, for opening the link to this story and reading it to the end.**


End file.
